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Find the largest log files on the server

harmless rootLogsdebian, ubuntu
Adjust the values, the command updates live
root@server
du -ah /var/log 2>/dev/null | sort -rh | head -20

Determines the size of all files and subdirectories in the log directory and shows the 20 largest entries. Directories appear with their total size, so a bloated /var/log/journal or an application log that is never rotated stands out immediately. For the logs of all Plesk domains, use /var/www/vhosts/system as the path.

Note: A log that is not rotated needs an entry under /etc/logrotate.d/. Do not delete a file that is still being written to with rm, empty it with truncate -s 0 instead.

Also searched as

  • logs filling up disk
  • which log file is so big
  • var log is full
  • find large log files linux

Related one-liners

All in Logs

Force log rotation immediately

#logrotate -vf /etc/logrotate.d/nginx
cautionLogs

Disk usage of all webspaces under /var/www/vhosts

#du -sh /var/www/vhosts/*/ 2>/dev/null | sort -rh | head -20
harmlessPlesk

Mailbox disk usage per domain in Plesk

#du -sh /var/qmail/mailnames/*/ 2>/dev/null | sort -rh | head -20
harmlessPlesk

Show the size of all subdirectories

$du -xh -d 1 /var/www/vhosts 2>/dev/null | sort -rh | head -20
harmlessFilesystem

Search rotated and compressed logs too

#zgrep -h "Out of memory" /var/log/syslog*
harmlessLogs

Test a logrotate configuration without rotating

#logrotate -d /etc/logrotate.d/nginx
harmlessLogs

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